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Never Look Away poster

Movies that feel likeNever Look Away (2018)

German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR regime.

If you loved Never Look Away, the closest films we have are Bajirao Mastani (2015), Jodhaa Akbar (2008) and A Royal Affair (2012). All three share Never Look Away's contemplative and romantic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Right Now, Wrong Then (2015).

🍅 77% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarckcontemplativeromantictenderepic
7 of 12 streaming nowParamount Plus Premium · MUBI · Fandor

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See it on the Mood Map

If Never Look Away hit the spot, these will too

Bajirao Mastani poster
Bajirao Mastani
2015 · dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali
🍅 68%★ 7.3history · romance · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then romance

Peshwa Bajirao married to Kashibai, falls in love with Mastani, a warrior princess in distress. They struggle to make their love triumph amid opposition from his conservative family.

Jodhaa Akbar poster
Jodhaa Akbar
2008 · dir. Ashutosh Gowariker
🍅 81%★ 7.5romance · history · drama

Tender where it counts, epic underneath

A sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a Mughal emperor and a Rajput princess.

A Royal Affair poster
A Royal Affair
2012 · dir. Nikolaj Arcel
🍅 90%★ 7.5drama · history · romance

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

A young queen falls in love with her physician, and they start a revolution that changes their nation forever.

Brooklyn poster
Brooklyn
2015 · dir. John Crowley
🍅 97%★ 7.5drama · history · romance

Both lean on romance more than on romance

In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.

Asako I & II poster
Asako I & II
2018 · dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
🍅 77%★ 7.1drama · romance

History built on tenderness, twice over

The difference: Trades the scale of Never Look Away for an angle of its own

Asako lives in Osaka. She falls in love with Baku, a free-spirit. One day, Baku suddenly disappears. Two years later, Asako now lives in Tokyo and meets Ryohei. He looks just like Baku, but has a completely different personality.

Anna Karenina poster
Anna Karenina
2012 · dir. Joe Wright
🍅 63%★ 6.6drama · romance · historyParamount+

Epic drama, and it commits to that

In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high society, a relationship like this could destroy a woman’s reputation.

Memoirs of a Geisha poster
Memoirs of a Geisha
2005 · dir. Rob Marshall
🍅 35%★ 7.3drama · romance · history

One thread runs through both: world war ii

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Right Now, Wrong Then poster
Right Now, Wrong Then
2015 · dir. Hong Sang-soo
🍅 92%★ 7.1drama · romance

Contemplative romance in both cases

By mistake, film director Ham Chunsu arrives in Suwon a day early. With time to kill before his lecture the next day, Chunsu stops by a restored, old palace and meets an artist named Yoon Heejung. Together, they go to Heejung's workshop to look at her paintings, have Sushi with Soju for dinner, and get close. Later, they go to another café and have more drinks with Heejung's acquaintances. When asked if he is married, Chunsu is forced to reveal the fact that he is, and Heejung gets deeply disappointed...

The Lunchbox poster
The Lunchbox
2013 · dir. Ritesh Batra
🍅 97%★ 7.8drama · romance

Both lean on romance more than on history

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system (Mumbai's Dabbawallahs) connects a young housewife to a stranger in the dusk of his life. They build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox. Gradually, this fantasy threatens to overwhelm their reality.

45 Years poster
45 Years
2015 · dir. Andrew Haigh
🍅 96%★ 7.1drama · romance

Tender drama, and it commits to that

There is just one week until Kate Mercer's 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.

Weekend poster
Weekend
2011 · dir. Andrew Haigh
🍅 95%★ 7.6drama · romanceRent or buy

The same romance instincts

After a drunken house party with his straight mates, Russell heads out to a gay club. Just before closing time he picks up Glen but what's expected to be just a one-night stand becomes something else, something special.

Free Fall poster
Free Fall
2013 · dir. Stephan Lacant
★ 7.5drama · romance

The drama is handled with the same confidence

A promising career with the police, a baby on the way... Marc's life seems to be right on track. Then he meets fellow policeman Kay and during their regular jogs Marc experiences a never-before-felt sense of ease and effortlessness – and what it means to fall in love with another man.

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The best-reviewed films that share Never Look Away’s defining feeling.